Southern league: St Paul’s star Harry Hunt to miss the rest of the season

A suburban football young gun and VFL prospect has undergone surgery after suffering facial fractures in a frightening clash of heads during the St Paul's v Port Melbourne Colts clash in the Southern Football League.

Star St Paul’s forward Harry Hunt will miss the rest of the season after suffering extensive facial injuries against Port Melbourne Colts last Saturday.

Hunt, 20, had plates and pins inserted to his face during surgery.

The left-footer was injured in a clash of heads with Port Melbourne Colts ruckman Matthew Dalla-Libera in the second quarter of the Division 1 Southern league match at McKinnon Reserve.

He went from the ground and was taken to hospital for observation.

An operation was performed the following day to repair fractures to his cheekbone and jaw.

Bone fragments were also removed from his eye socket, St Paul’s coach Jason Heffernan said.

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He said Hunt, an electrician, would spend two or three weeks away from work recovering.

“It’s all pretty fresh but he’s in pretty good spirits,’’ Heffernan said.

“He said, ‘Look, it’s just one of those things’.

“The vision shows two blokes going for the ball and they come together at the wrong time. There was no malice in it or anything like that.

“It’s a shame for the kid, because he’s being watched by a couple of VFL clubs.

“He’s a very talented player but he hasn’t had a lot of luck. I think he’s got through one full season in the past five years. I just hope he makes a really good recovery, gets some calls from the VFL and goes from there.’’

Heffernan said Hunt would be a big loss for St Paul’s but the Bulldogs would push on.

“We’re saying to our boys, ‘If everyone sticks to the way we go about things, we’ll be OK, when it’s your turn to have a go, take it’.’’

Colts president Stephen Duvnjak said his club wished Hunt well in his recovery.

Meanwhile, Dalla-Libera was last night suspended for four weeks after receiving a yellow card and being reported for striking St Paul’s player Jack Hayes in the first quarter last Saturday.

It was the star big man’s second report this season and took him up to 15 weeks, one short of the AFL Victoria threshold that leads to automatic deregistration.

Duvnjak said the club believed the penalty was excessive and the club would appeal.